Chapter One: Indoctrination
I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? - Jeremiah 32:27 Modern Times On its own, humanity is a destructive force. It needs a master. - Ra's al Ghul “Can you cure her?” asked Kevin cringing at the deference in his voice. He was used to being the infallible father, he put food on the table, dealt with any monsters in town, he and his buddies even staked a vampire once! Then his daughter just started wasting away and there was nothing he could fight, nothing he could do except beg Duval. He didn't have anything against Duval, heck he liked the guy, but all this made him feel like a failure. Duval ran his fingers along the air around the bed, tracing some shape only he could see, then he kissed his teeth in anger. “It is a goddess, a dry, lifeless, sort of goddess, your daughter is a strong woman to have lived this long.” Duval looked at the shorter man, and failed to find words for an apology. “My medicines will be no good against a goddess, if your daughter is to live she must become a priest as I am, if she dedicates her life to my god he will heal her wounds”. “Is there no other way, she had plans, a future, she was going to go to collage?” Duval kissed his teeth again, Kevin couldn't tell if he directed it at himself or the goddess. “I know of no other way”. The two men's eyes met and Duval had to turn away from the pain in Kevin's eyes. “If there is any other way it must be you who finds it. I can prepare some medicine, it will buy her time. Do not take too long in your search, or it will be too late when you come to me again.” Shadows of World War II "Are you the man from FORT?" "Yes sir...Can I see it." "This way son." In silence the two men entered the ancient Afganistani temple, VALKYRIE soldiers standing guard at the entry and behind the columns, two manning a machine gun by the door. Soon the pair entered an inner sanctum. Looking out of place among the ancient stone columns was a sleek metal device, glowing and humming slightly. "Well son, what do you make of this." "Well, would you look at that. I've never seen anything quite like this. It's probably human tech, old but not nearly old enough to be in here. Forties, fifties at the latest. Here's the battery, resistors, vacuum tubes, but it's not wired too anything. The wires make a pattern but it doesn't match any occult symbols I've read about. Wait there's another chamber" He leapt back "God! That's a foetus!" The man from FORT looked at the officer. "Sir, I heard rumours, the Germans-" "No, the Germans would have signed it. This is one of the Brit's old toys." "Sir?!" "Congratulation's solider, you've just been granted WAGNER clearance. The rumours are true, World War II was the high watermark for occult weaponry. Afterwords the Brits destroyed their weapons and everyone burned the German tech. Much of VALKYRIE's early research was built on Operation Paperclip but we've still been playing catch up to every techo-witch and madboy. Until today." "With all due respect, I think there was a good rea..." "What I want you to tell me, is how to safely transport this home." "Sir. No." "Son, I gave you a direct order. Do you have a problem with that?" Frederick was just settling into his new office when Jonas asked if he would accompany him to the library. "Here we are, take one of these." said Jonas "Mein Kampf?! What is this?" "Are you so surprised? Did you imagine that '''we' would burn it?"'' When Frederick didn't reply Jonas went on: "It's a tradition we have, when one of ours is promoted to your level. You can have Mao's Little Red Book, one of Stalin's or any dictator you like really, but Mein Kampf is traditional." "And what am I supposed to do with it, according to 'tradition'"? "Why, refute it of course. You know where to find the history books, the philosophy books, the Jewish collection. Remember this Frederick, we might kill a dictator but we don't burn books. We refute them." In the World of Darkness World War II happened mostly as it did in our world. Hitler, Churchill and the upper ranks were mortal humans, the Nazi ideology was neither created not manipulated by monsters or witches. In the shadows things were different, monsters fed on the chaos of war while spies, patriotic witches, and elite specialist soldiers on all sides of the conflict used powerful Endowments to push their nation's agenda. The war has shaped most government or military funded hunters in those nations who fought on the European Theater. VALKYRIE's Advanced Armoury was kickstarted by German scientists recruited through Operation Paperclicp. The British never destroyed their technology, technology that was considered unconscionable until war made it necessary. Germany's lack of occult resources is a direct consequence and Soviet agents project their minds beyond their bodies using technology refined from Nazi Willenskrafte. If the war gave the Vigil it's advanced technology, it gave cults something far more terrible. Their ideology. Thousands of cults, admittedly most with only a few adherents, preach the ideological descendants of Nazi political or occult ideals. Others steal the ground-breaking propaganda techniques used by the Third Reich to mould converts into their own image. Even decades later the shadow of World War II stretches over the Vigil and reminds monster hunters that sometimes the very worst evils are all too human.